bank of the river by which they were lying. Thorvald, a son of Eric the Red, was sitting at the helm, and the Uniped shot an arrow into his inwards. Thorvald drew out the arrow, and exclaimed: 'There is fat around my paunch; we have hit upon a fruitful country, and yet we are not like to get much profit of it[1].' Thorvald died soon after from this wound. Then the Uniped ran away back toward the north. Karlsefni and his men pursued him, and saw him from time to time[2]. The last they saw of him, he ran down into a creek. Then they turned back; whereupon one of the men recited this ditty:
Eager, our men, up hill down dell,
Hunted a Uniped;
Hearken, Karlsefni, while they tell
How swift the quarry fled![3]
Then they sailed away back toward the north, and believed they had got sight of the land of the Unipeds; nor were they disposed to risk the lives of their men any longer. They concluded that the mountains of Hóp, and those which they had now found, formed one chain, and this appeared to be so because they were about an equal distance removed from Streamfirth, in either direction[4]. They sailed back, and passed the third winter at Streamfirth. Then the men began to divide into factions[5], of which the women were the cause; and those who were without wives, endeavoured to seize upon the wives of those who were married, whence the greatest trouble arose. Snorri, Karlsefni's son, was born the first autumn, and he was three winters' old[6] when they took their departure. When they sailed away from Wineland, they had a southerly wind, and so came upon Markland, where they found five Skrellings, of whom one was bearded, two were women, and two were children. Karlsefni and his people took the boys, but the others escaped, and these Skrellings sank down into the earth. They bore the lads away with them, and taught them to speak, and they were baptized. They said that their mother's name was Vætilldi, and their
- ↑ In EsR the text of this passage seems to be somewhat confused, apparently through a clerical error. It reads: 'and runs down thither to where they [the companions of] Thorvald, the son of Eric the Red, lay; then said Thorvald: "We have found a good land." Then the Uniped runs away; back toward the north, having first shot an arrow into Thorvald's intestines; he drew out the arrow, then Thorvald said: "There is fat about the paunch." They pursued the Uniped,' &c.
- ↑ EsR adds, 'and it seemed as if he were trying to escape.'
- ↑ Lit. 'The men pursued, most true it is, a Uniped down to the shore, but the strange man took to running swift over the banks. Hear thou, Karlsefni!'
- ↑ EsR: 'They intended to explore all the mountains, those which were at Hóp, and [those] which they discovered.'
- ↑ EsR: 'gengu menn þá mjǫk sleitum,' the men then began to grow quarrelsome [?].
- ↑ EsR: 'ok var þar þann er þeir fóru á brott,' and was there 'that' when they went away. It is not clear to what the 'þann' refers.
